


My Brother's Keeper

by StoneyT456



Category: I Medici | Medici: Masters of Florence (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-26
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:42:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24394459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StoneyT456/pseuds/StoneyT456
Summary: In the quiet moments after Giuliano's death, Lorenzo has a conversation with the person he least wants to - another Pazzi.(Basically, an angst filled  conversation between Lorenzo and other characters and he and they deal with the loss of Giuliano.)
Relationships: Bianca di Piero de' Medici/Guglielmo de' Pazzi, Giuliano de' Medici & Lorenzo "Il Magnifico" de' Medici, Lorenzo "Il Magnifico" de' Medici/Clarice Orsini
Comments: 2
Kudos: 37





	My Brother's Keeper

**Author's Note:**

> Uhm... so I just finished all of The Medici at 4:30 this morning so to say I am a little emotionally compromised is an understatement. That being said, this is posted with absolutely no beta-ing and through tears. At the moment, I tend to keep it as a one-shot but who knows, I might add some stuff later as I am an absolute hoe for the Medici boys. Anyway, please enjoy this angst filled piece of trash and let me know if you would be interested in more. Thanks!

All Lorenzo could hear was the sound of breathing. The sound of his own breath, not the breath of his brother. The breath of his brother who was always by his side, always there for him, always- the brother who was _dead._

Lorenzo took another drink, blinking as Clarice came into his view. It was the first moment of quiet he had had since the conspiracy at mass, the first moment of real peace, well, Lorenzo wasn't sure if he could call anything a moment of 'peace' after that. He looked up at his wife, not even bothering to give her a reassuring smile. He knew that she would know that it was fake. What was the point? 

"What is it?" He asked. His brother was dead, his family betrayed, his sister... his sister exiled. There wasn't much more that he could handle. Clarice looked at him sympathetically. Bianca, Guglielmo, and your niece are leaving. 

He waved his glass. "So?" 

She huffed at him. "Don't you wish to say goodbye?" 

He looked down. Clarice wasn't having it. "Lorenzo," her voice was quiet, "I know you're hurting. But she is your sister and her daughter is your niece. Do not do something you will regret." 

"Too many people have told me that recently." 

She offered him a smile. "Perhaps you should listen to them." 

He took a large sip. "Maybe when I have cut down the men that did the same to my brother I shall." 

Clarice shook her head. "Do not make the mistake of thinking that you are the only one hurting from Giuliano's death." 

He snapped his eyes up to her. "Do you claim to have the same level of grief as I do, Clarice? Because I guarantee you that you are wrong." He hissed. 

"I make no claim," she retorted, looking at him shocked, "however your sister also just lost her brother and your mother her youngest son. I cannot even image what she is feeling." 

Lorenzo looked down, ashamed but not wanting Clarice to know it. 

"I am going to say goodbye to my sister in law. You can come or not, Lorenzo," her voice lost the venomous tone she just had, instead replaced with her soft tone from earlier, "you just lost your brother. Your grief is blinding you to the fact that you are about to lose another. Please, come say goodbye." 

Lorenzo met her gaze. "I shall think about it." 

She made her way to the door, paused, and shook her head. "Think quickly." 

* * *

In the end it was Guglielmo who came to Lorenzo. Lorenzo was still in his study, the wine from the bottle on the table next to him getting lower and lower until there was nothing but a drop left. He could only replay the scene from the attack in his mind. He replayed it over and over, thinking of a million and one things he could have done differently to save Giuliano. The one thing, the main thing that haunted him was the image of his wounded brother handing him that damn knife. 

Lorenzo knew Giuliano wasn't armed when he entered the church, knew that he would have no weapons on him. He knew then that the blade came from one of their attackers, that Giuliano had been stabbed yet still managed to fight. And if he had managed to fight to get the blade Lorenzo knew he could have fought to get out, to leave the church. He could have gone to get help or kept the knife for himself. But he didn't, and as soon as he handed the knife to Lorenzo he was held back and slaughtered. 

If he had kept the knife, if he had used it to defend himself, he could have lived. He could be here, plotting with Lorenzo about how to get the best revenge. A small voice in Lorenzo's head woulnd't let him believe that. _It was him or you and the moment he handed you that knife he made the decision for you._

What gave Giuliano the right to suddenly make important decisions? What fire lit underneath him to chose that moment to take charge, to play the role of the bigger brother. Why then? Why when it meant risking his own life? Why did he- 

The knocking at the door stopped his thoughts. He wasn't thinking. "Come in." He replied automatically. 

He heard the door creak and the sound of heavy footsteps. He looked up, expecting his mother or his wife, but instead he saw Guglielmo. Immediately Lorenzo jumped up, hand going to the knife he had on the table. The same knife that- 

"What are you doing here, Guglielmo? Come to finish the job of your family?" He yelled. 

Guglielmo visibly flinched. "Lorenzo, I-" 

"Whatever you have to say I don't want to hear it." Lorenzo snapped, knife still pointed at Guglielmo's throat. "You have no business in this house anymore and you never should have." 

He tried to take a step forward, "Lorenzo," He tried. 

Instead Lorenzo held his ground, keeping the knife at him. He put his hands up at Lorenzo. "I mean no harm, I wish only to speak with you." 

"I have made my opinion of your words quite clear, Guglielmo." 

"I know that, I just ask of you two minutes of your time." 

Lorenzo narrowed his eyes. "And why the hell would I allow you that?" He spat. 

"If you ever loved your sister and her daughter, allow me these two minutes." 

"You dare use my sister against me, now? After what your family has done?" 

"I didn't mean to use it against you, Lorenzo, I only wish the chance to speak." 

"So you can stab me in the back like your brother?" 

If anything Guglielmo stood taller. "I am not and have never been my brother." 

Something in his statement made Lorenzo lower his knife. Despite his words, the way Guglielmo said it reminded him of Francesco. Of his confidence. Of his ruthlessness. Of the man that Lorenzo thought he knew when he named him Godfather of his child over his own brother. Lorenzo slowly lowered the blade. "You have two minutes and not a second more, do you understand?" 

Guglielmo nodded, relaxing a bit. Lorenzo sat back in his chair, his eyes not once leaving the other man. "Go on then." 

"Lorenzo," Guglielmo began, looking haggard. Lorenzo didn't allow himself to feel sympathy for the man, but at the same time he acknowledged the strife the man must be feeling. He just had his entire family murdered and now was being kicked out of the only home he had ever known, never to return. "Lorenzo you have to believe me that I knew nothing of the plot. I would never have let my brother and uncle go against the family. I know you don't believe me, but it is important to me that you know that I would never purposely betray this family." 

He paused and took a breath. Lorenzo's face stayed passive. "I want you to know first and foremost that you have my deepest condolences for Giuliano."

Lorenzo barely spoke above a whisper. "You don't get to say his name." 

Guglielmo paused. "Lorenzo, I-" 

"I said you could talk but I will not hear my brother's name come off the mouth of a Pazzi." 

Guglielmo lowered his head. "I understand. Your brother," he continued, looking at Lorenzo for approval before he continued, "was a good man." 

"What do you know of my brother?" 

"I know that he was the first to know about Bianca and I's relationship." 

Lorenzo shook his head. "He knew when Bianca ran off with you and almost ruined her reputation." 

Guglielmo was undeterred. "No, he knew long before then." 

Lorenzo stood up. "Are you calling me a liar?" 

"I would never. But your brother knew. At the tournament, when he jousted me. You and I both know that he could have killed me." 

"As I should have done to your brother." 

Guglielmo tried not to show emotion on his face. "Your brother could have killed me and won the tournament. Did you ever stop to wonder why he did not?" 

Lorenzo shrugged. 

"He did it because he knew that Bianca would never forgive him if he killed me. He knew about our relationship, then Lorenzo." 

"And he did not tell me?" Lorenzo slumped on the arm of his chair. 

"Because if there was ever one thing your brother cared about over all else, it was those he loved. He loved Bianca enough to know that she would be devastated if something were to happen to me. Your brother, for reasons I could not fathom at the time, endured the embarrassment of losing to a lesser swordsman and the guilt I am sure he felt lying to you in order to make her happy. Your brother never did a single thing out of selfishness." 

Lorenzo shook his head. "Then you do not know my brother." 

For the first time since he had entered the room, Guglielmo raised his voice. "Then you do not know him as much as you thought you did." 

Lorenzo stood up. "You better watch your tongue." 

"Your brother acted out of love in every single thing he did. You forget that I lived here too, Lorenzo. I saw many things that your brother did. I know that he did not do as you asked, but I also know he did that out of love for Simonetta as well as the knowledge that you thought Francesco the better man for the job. I am not blind or dumb and neither was your brother." 

Everything in Lorenzo wanted to scream at Guglielmo, wanted to kill him right then and there. "You act like you knew my brother, Guglielmo, that this loss hurt you. But it was your family that killed him." 

"My family are the Medici!" He yelled. "They were as soon as I married Bianca. My brother was dead to me as soon as he pulled that knife, Lorenzo." 

Lorenzo wanted his words to sting as much as Guglielmo's did. "Then you do not care that I personally sentenced your family to death and made sure that their necks snapped as they were thrust out of the very building they wanted to rule in? That your uncle was paraded around the streets?" 

Guglielmo held strong. "You may have killed the Pazzi today Lorenzo but you did not kill my family." 

"The Pazzi blood runs in you and in your daughter." 

"Blood does not determine where my loyalties lie." 

Lorenzo scoffed. "That is where you and I differ, Guglielmo." 

Guglielmo shook his head. "I feel sorry for you, Lorenzo. I grieve the death of you brother along with my wife but I also grieve another loss." 

Lorenzo turned to face him. "I thought you said you did not mourn the loss of your family." 

Guglielmo stepped up next to him. "It is not the loss of my family I mourn, it is the loss of the ideals that you once stood for, Lorenzo." 

"Not listening to my brother is what got him killed. I intend never to make that mistake again." 

Guglielmo broke away as he made his way to the door. "I meant what I said, Lorenzo. Your brother never did anything that wasn't out of love. He was a good and brave man. But he was wrong. Peace should always be your choice." 

"The choice was made for me when your family plunged a knife into my brother's back." 

"I know it is useless Lorenzo, but I will at least try to ask you to reconsider my exile. Not for my sake, but for Bianca's. I do not want her to lose her mother and other brother as well." 

Lorenzo sat back down in his chair, twirling his knife on the table. "My answer is final, Guglielmo, you are exiled from Florence. If my sister chooses to go with you then that is her doing, not mine. 

"You know she will not abandon me." 

"Then I feel no guilt in knowing that this was her choice." 

Guglielmo put his foot out the door and paused. "What would your brother think of what you have done?" 

It wasn't meant to be a blow, Lorenzo knew that. He knew Guglielmo's question was legitimate, that he wanted him to consider it instead saying it to spite him. Lorenzo knew that, but it didn't help soften the blow. "You talk of my brother being selfless, Guglielmo, but I can think of one act of selfishness he committed that will be remembered forever." 

His voice was soft... a goodbye. "And what was that act, Lorenzo?" 

"He died." 

**Author's Note:**

> ... sorry, we get no happy endings in this house. If you liked it, please leave kudos or comment and let me know if you're interested in more... I'll probably write more anyway.


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